Over the years fishing hooks have been made from wood, bone, spider webs, and thorny plants. Monday, which means it’s time for a new article! Today I tinkered with a few ideas before settling on something simple, making a fishing hook from one of a few types of thorny palms. All you need for this is a small pocket knife.

Get your palm

Now as a note, this was cut from one of my palms a few days ago because it was touching the ground, I didn’t cut it down just for this purpose.

Place the blade of your knife just before the thorns and pull down to separate them from the meat of the stalk. Be careful when you do this because the thorns are VERY sharp and will easily tear up your hands. In tropical environments even a small wound from these can get infected and become serious really fast. You should end up with something like this.

This also shows the size of the knife I'm using. It doesn't take much.

Find a thorn with a good curve on it to turn into your hook and cut it away. It’s also good it you cut off part of the next thorn as well, I’ll explain why in a bit. Here’s what it should look like after you cut the section away.

Notice how the right side is cut.

Now you need to do a little carving. Trim down around the hook end to get it as thin as possible, The thinner it is the easier it will be for a fish to take the bait. It also needs a notch in the back so that you can tie your fishing string. Here’s a finished product.

The notch in the back is where you will tie your string. Just make sure it’s nice and tight so it can’t slip off when you get a fish. These hooks are pretty durable and you should be able to use them repeatedly. It took me under 5 minutes to make as well.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, if you have suggestions for new ones, please send an email to info@forgottenknowledge.net I’m always open for ideas, suggestions, and what can be done better.